Heritage in Glenmore Forest Park

Drain pipes and men o’war

Timber was big business in the 1700s. The magnificent trees of the Cairngorms forests were in demand as cities grew and new industries flourished. Trees felled in nearby Abernethy were even used to make drain pipes for London streets.

In 1782, the Duke of Gordon, who owned Glenmore, offered the chance to operate a timber business in the glen. The advertisement promised ‘a hundred thousand trees full grown and fit for the Royal Navy.’ By 1784 the Glenmore Company had bought the rights to the timber and set up a shipyard at the mouth of the river Spey. Logs were stored on Loch Morlich until there was enough water to float them down the river to the shipyard, where they were used to build 47 large ships before the company completed their contract in 1805. One of them was called Glenmore in honour of the source of its timbers.

Glenmore is still a working forest today, but the timber is used for building and fence posts instead of ships, and it travels by road instead of down the river.

A township in the glen

Glenmore is also the site of the remains of a township called Beglan, which is thought to date back to around 1740.